We've Got All Year
by purplehairedwonder
Summary: Blaine sits on the edge of his bed, tracing the red piping of the Dalton blazer when Sebastian shows up to follow up on the Warblers' recruitment pitch. Written for the Seblaine Sunday Challenge.


**Note:** Just a little something written for the Seblaine Sunday Challenge over on Tumblr. This week's prompt was "Dalton blazer." It takes place during "Dynamic Duets."

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing you recognize.

* * *

**We've Got All Year**

* * *

Blaine sat on the edge of his bed, the Dalton blazer the Warblers had presented him with that afternoon twined between his fingers. His own blazer still hung in the back of his closet; he hadn't been able to look at it since the slushie incident, not when it was a sharp reminder of the betrayal of people he'd considered friends, but he hadn't been able to bring himself to get rid of it either.

Blaine had always felt _safe_ in the blazer. It was in that blazer he'd healed in the wake of Sadie Hawkins; he'd grown into himself and even found love. In that blazer, he'd had friends. He'd been seen _and _heard, a presence at Dalton, while he simply ghosted through the halls of McKinley.

The moment the blazer had settled on his shoulders, he'd _felt_ that sense of belonging again, one he'd never quite been able to recreate at McKinley. It was incredibly seductive, the way the Warblers had welcomed him back, falling in step and harmonizing with him like he'd never left. It was almost primal, crawling under his skin and syncing with the beats of his heart.

And okay, Hunter seemed like a cartoon villain (perfect as Nightbird's arch nemesis perhaps), complete with that ridiculous cat, but Hunter hadn't been the one to meet him at the bottom of the stairs.

(The stairs where he'd first met—

No.)

No, it had been Sebastian at the bottom of the stairs.

It had been so easy to fall back into their familiar banter in those first moments, a dynamic they'd established after they'd first met and before competition and betrayal had broken their friendship.

Sebastian had looked at him with an intensity that made his skin itch and his blood pulse. And there had been something both knowing ("We all know the real Blaine, Blaine") and assessing in his eyes.

Blaine wondered what the other boy saw to make him look at him like _that_ ("What did I tell you? Flawless") when all Blaine saw in the mirror was a broken, hollowed out shell of a person.

Blaine was tired and heartbroken. He knew his family had seen it; his parents had been checking up on him more since the breakup, and even Cooper had started calling more frequently. But it wasn't enough—not when the rest of his life was in shambles. Dalton had once been a refuge in a storm; maybe it could be again. His parents hadn't been thrilled with him transferring in the first place since he'd lost a lot of academic clout, so he didn't think it would be hard to get them to sign the transfer papers currently sitting on his desk.

Chewing his bottom lip, Blaine ran a finger down the blazer's red piping and traced the Dalton insignia on the breast. Did he really wantto be a Dalton boy again? _Could_ he even summon that part of himself anymore?

There was a knock on bedroom door and Blaine, assuming it was his mother, called, "Come in," without looking up. But when the door opened, it wasn't his mother on the other side.

Blaine opened his mouth, only to shut it again as Sebastian stood in his doorway, a hesitant look on his face. His Dalton blazer was gone, his tie loosened, and the sleeves of his shirt rolled up. He looked effortlessly casual—and undeniably attractive, Blaine couldn't help but notice.

Blaine had known Sebastian was attractive the day they'd met—he'd been taken, not blind—but he hadn't wanted to ruin his relationship (ha), so had never really let himself _look_, though he knew Sebastian would've encouraged it. But as Sebastian stood in Blaine's doorway, armor seemingly down, he very nearly took Blaine's breath away.

Oh.

"Hey," Sebastian said, stepping into the room and shutting the door behind him. "Your mom said to come on up." He glanced back at the door a moment then turned back to Blaine with a curious look. "I assume she doesn't know who I am?"

Blaine shook his head, the painful reminder enough to anchor him once more. "No, I never told them who threw the slushie."

"Oh." He seemed surprised. "Thank you."

Blaine shrugged dismissively. "I didn't do it for you. There was no evidence, and I didn't want to put my parents through another round of litigation that would go nowhere."

Sebastian raised an eyebrow and, for a moment, looked like he wanted to say something else. But he remained silent and Blaine was surprised to find that he was disappointed.

"What are you doing here, Sebastian?" he asked, turning back at the blazer in his hands, when it was obvious the other boy wasn't going to speak.

With his head down, though, he could still feel those eyes on him. It was as if Sebastian was looking _through_ him—not the way people at McKinley did, but right to his core. It was more than a little disconcerting, feeling laid bare like that, especially when it seemed like all he had were his masks anymore.

"Can't a guy check up on an old friend?"

"'A guy'? Sure," Blaine replied, peering up at Sebastian skeptically. "You? No."

Sebastian put a hand to his chest. "I'm wounded, Anderson."

Blaine rolled his eyes. "Sure."

Sebastian's lips twitched and he stepped further into the room. He nodded at the blazer. "Do you know what you're going to do?"

Blaine frowned, though he wasn't sure why he was surprised Sebastian was asking. The Warblers had concocted an entire theft just to get him to show up on campus again; of course they'd want to follow up with their recruitment pitch. "Is that why you're here?"

"As far as the Warblers are concerned," Sebastian replied with a casual shrug. "I have to toe the party line, you know."

Blaine cocked his head to the side, intrigued. After Sebastian had been demoted, the dean had gone to the trouble of recruiting Hunter to lead the Warblers this year—though just two years before the Warblers had been led by a council of upper classmen. Sebastian's power play had backfired when Blaine had gotten hurt, and now he had to play nice in the aftermath. There was a weird sort of poetic justice to the whole thing.

But something about the way Sebastian had said that seemed odd.

"As far as the Warblers are concerned?" Blaine echoed. "Then how about as far as _you're_ concerned?"

Sebastian smiled as he leaned back against Blaine's desk. "I was curious too, Killer. But for different reasons, obviously."

Blaine felt a faint blush tinge his cheeks, and he quickly turned his attention back to the blazer. He ran a hand over the material as he collected himself.

"It looks good on you."

Blaine looked up in surprise to see Sebastian staring at the blazer as well, though his expression seemed almost wistful.

"After we first met, I kept wondering what you'd looked like in that blazer. So I found your yearbook picture."

Blaine groaned. "You didn't."

His sophomore yearbook picture hadn't been particularly flattering, not that yearbook pictures ever were. He'd been having a particularly bad hair day and no amount of gel had been able to tame the beast, much to his chagrin and his friends' amusement. And of course he'd been shoved front and center in the Warblers' picture.

"I did," Sebastian said with a laugh. "But it didn't do you justice."

Blaine's eyes widened as Sebastian pushed up from the desk and sat down next to him on the bed. Sebastian kept a respectable distance between them, but Blaine's stomach still flipped at the proximity. He wasn't sure whether he was appreciative of or disappointed by the space; there was something utterly magnetic about Sebastian and, no matter the baggage between them, he couldn't help but feel drawn to the other boy.

"The trophy theft wasn't my idea," Sebastian said after a moment.

Blaine blinked. "No?"

Sebastian shook his head. "Once it hit the Dalton rumor mill that you and Hummel had broken up, it got some of the guys hopeful you might come back. Hunter just ran with the idea."

Blaine shut his eyes. "You heard about Kurt." The very thought made him feel sick. But how much did they know? He hadn't told anyone about why they'd broken up, but he hadn't realized people were gossiping about his relationship either. He probably should've expected it, though.

Sebastian shrugged. "I can't say I'm sorry you finally ditched His Royal Highness, but it wasn't my idea to steal your trophy. I just wanted you to know."

_But you went along with it_, Blaine thought. But instead he said, "If you guys wanted to talk, you could've just called. No need for grand theft trophy."

Sebastian raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Would you have picked up?"

"I-" Blaine started but then shut his mouth again.

"Thought so."

"But an impromptu song? Really?" Blaine asked, leaning over to nudge Sebastian.

Sebastian laughed and held his hands up defensively. "I'm toeing the party line here, Anderson."

"No bullying, blackmail, or assault this year."

"And as much as you know I'd like to play dirty," Sebastian said with a smirk, "this blackmail is all on Hunter."

Blaine blushed and couldn't help but laugh. "You're incorrigible." Sebastian's smirk widened and his eyes lit up, making Blaine's insides flutter. He swallowed. "And is that supposed to be the big sales pitch? 'Come back to the Warblers. Our captain is the only one who blackmails'?" He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "That would've been true last year as well, I guess."

Sebastian just shrugged, still smiling, as silence fell between them. There was something electric on the air, and Blaine found himself very aware of the other boy. They were only inches apart there on his bed, and he felt warm while his skin prickled with tension. He balled his hands into the fabric of the blazer.

"I was thinking of a different kind of pitch," Sebastian said quietly. "One a little more...personal."

Sebastian reached across Blaine to run a hand over the blazer, his hand resting atop Blaine's in the fabric. Blaine's breath hitched at the touch and his eyes slid shut. Sebastian's touch was light, and his hand curled around Blaine's like it was meant to fit around it. Blaine's entire hand tingled at the contact.

It was, Blaine realized, the first time since before Kurt had left for New York that he'd touched another boy and _felt_. Hooking up with Eli had been empty, a mistake from the start and there'd been nothing behind the shared touches.

But with Sebastian...

Blaine pulled back suddenly, eyes flying open. "I—I can't do this. I'm sorry."

Sebastian jerked his hand back as though he'd been burned and looked momentarily hurt. But he schooled himself quickly, his posture straightening as he rose to his feet. He towered over Blaine, making him feel even smaller than he already did in the moment.

"It's fine, I get it," Sebastian said coolly, making for the door.

"Sebastian," Blaine said as the other boy walked away, the words spilling from his lips before he knew what he was saying, "I can't do this _right now_."

He was heartbroken and a shell of a person, but Sebastian... He apparently saw something more than that when he looked at Blaine. And in those brief moments of contact, Blaine had felt _wanted._

It had been a long time since he'd felt wanted like that.

Sebastian stopped at the door and turned to look back at Blaine, studying him for a long moment while Blaine tried not to fidget under the scrutiny then inclining his head.

"We've got all year, Killer," he said with a small, knowing smile.

Maybe Dalton wouldn't be so safe after all, Blaine thought a little breathlessly as the door shut behind Sebastian. But that might not be such a bad thing either.

* * *

Three days later, disappointment gnawed at Sebastian's insides as he watched Blaine and one of his New Directions friends flee across the Dalton grounds, complete with stupid costumes, their trophy in hand and Blaine's blazer left behind in its place.

He'd been so sure that Blaine would come back to Dalton after seeing the way Blaine touched the Dalton blazer almost reverentially and finding the transfer papers half-filled out on his desk.

(He'd also felt the charged air between them and way Blaine trembled at his touch.

And he'd hoped...)

He barely heard Hunter letting off an impressive string of curses as he stared at Blaine's retreating back. Wasn't that just fitting, Sebastian forever watching Blaine get further and further out of reach?

But later he would check his phone and, to his surprise, find a text from Blaine waiting for him.

_We've still got all year, Bas._


End file.
